Starting with the ‘80s, following his years of study, and until the end of the ‘90s, Ioan Aurel Mureșan practices drawing as (well as) working tool, a preparatory stage for the painterly creation. The preparatory notations are abridged, using a single line to capture gestures, details of the physiognomy. Some of the sketches for the compositions include short linguistic formulations or poetically pertinent expressions. Highly expressive, they denote a good mastery of the visual exercise, remaining not only as documentation material of the creative process, but also as autonomous forms of art.

Grouped in nine sketchbooks, almost 700 drawings complete the creation of the period in question, most of them reflecting the preoccupation with the series of Duke d’Ivry.